Best ground crew job in the airforce!

[Ed Majden]

Best ground crew job in the Air Force!

NCO I/C debriefing, parking, and turn around, on a Patriot or other SAM
missile! ;-)

Ed (retired-Bomarc tech)

[Greasy Rider]

On Tue, 02 Mar 2004 23:21:43 GMT, "Ed Majden" >
disturbed the phosphur particles on my screen with the following:

>Best ground crew job in the Air Force!
>
>NCO I/C debriefing, parking, and turn around, on a Patriot or other SAM
>missile! ;-)
>
>Ed (retired-Bomarc tech)
>
I always heard that guys went into the USAF to avoid military service.

( This old airdale Marine is ducking, running and grinning! )

[WaltBJ]

Hah! It is to laugh. I was in the 326 FIS and working with the SAGE
site at Kansas City (RG AFB)in the early 60s. They were having a
systems test exercise and one controller was running a (simulated)
Bomarc. Somehow he hit the RTB command and Lo! The Bomarc did a 180
and headed back for the barn. That caused a real loud fuss and some
hasty changes were made in the program.
Walt BJ

[Ed Majden]

"WaltBJ" > wrote in message
om...
> Hah! It is to laugh. I was in the 326 FIS and working with the SAGE
> site at Kansas City (RG AFB)in the early 60s. They were having a
> systems test exercise and one controller was running a (simulated)
> Bomarc. Somehow he hit the RTB command and Lo! The Bomarc did a 180
> and headed back for the barn. That caused a real loud fuss and some
> hasty changes were made in the program.
> Walt BJ

I was with the Canadian Bomarc squadrons, 446 and 447 in the late 60's
and early 70's. Lucky enough to go to Florida on two trips to test fire a
Bomarc. Both intercepts were successful. Great fun! Worked in MIU, Target
Seeker Labs and finally as a Quality Control Inspector.
Ed

[WaltBJ]

"Ed Majden" > wrote in message news:<QVm1c.655692$JQ1.252816@pd7tw1no>...
>SNIP:>
> I was with the Canadian Bomarc squadrons, 446 and 447 in the late 60's
> and early 70's. Lucky enough to go to Florida on two trips to test fire a
> Bomarc. Both intercepts were successful. Great fun! Worked in MIU, Target
> Seeker Labs and finally as a Quality Control Inspector.
> Ed



I was involved with drone Bomarc As in the early 60s. ADC was trying
to shoot them down with their interceptors. I was on three missions
out of Homestead in our 104As. All three times the bloody Bismark
crapped out. One never moved off the pad, one had a booster blow up,
and the last one's ramjets never lit off. I was yelling at the range
control to leave it alone as I dove down at the thing and switching to
the gun but the RSO blew it up about 2 miles in front of me. This was
always a PITA as wake-up was about 0430 (after a night at the club).
Later on our CO saw the thing sail past, took a second to realize real
in-service Bismarks were painted grey and not black white and orange,
took off after it, neither AIM9 would fire, and scorched the paint on
the missiles as he trouble shot the system. Still no go and he RTB'ed.
He never would say just how fast he got up to but Lockheed stated
thrust crossed drag at about 2.36. He did allow as how the SLOW light
had been on a while. Okay, Walt M., (not me) how fast did you really
get to? I understand an F101B got a hit with an infrared Falcon on a
front - head-on- attack later on.
Walt BJ

[Ed Majden]

"WaltBJ"
.. I was on three missions
> out of Homestead in our 104As. All three times the bloody Bismark
> crapped out. One never moved off the pad, one had a booster blow up,
> and the last one's ramjets never lit off.

Sounds like the Bomarc "A" models with the liquid booster. We used the
"B" model with solid boost which were far less troublesome. The first time
446 went down on a shoot they took out a B47 drone. They then switched to
much cheaper Firebee drones fired from Tyndal if I remember correctly. We
stayed at Hurlbert Field #9 but we test fired from Santarosa Island near
there. One year we stayed at a Howard Johnson's near Fort Walton Beach.
Very nice break from our cold weather that time of year.
Ed